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ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY |
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Select: Plato - Aristotle |
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Socrates had spoken of concepts and had affirmed their existence in the field of logic and morality. But he had said nothing of their nature and origin. Plato (picture) sought to fill in this gap. Concepts to him are subsistent realities which exist in a divine world (the world of Ideas), separate from the mind and material things. The World of Ideas is the world of true reality. Ideas are true reality, and particulars or phenomena are dependent and relatively unreal. Human souls and all things in this visible world are intelligible in so far as they participate in the world of Ideas. Plato, like Socrates, conceived of philosophy in its practical consequences; we must know in order to solve the problem of morality. Plato was born in 427 B.C. and died in 347 B.C. He was born of a noble family and highly educated. He was the greatest pupil of Socrates, the teacher of Aristotle, and reconstructed the doctrine of Socrates. At the age of twenty, Plato became an ardent disciple of Socrates; at forty he developed his Academy in Athens. The philosophic task of Plato was to think through and complete the work begun by his master, Socrates. Plato's works include Laches, Charmides, Euthyphro, Lesser Hippias, Apology for Socrates, Crito, Ion, Lysis, Gorgias, Meno, Euthydemus, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Menexenus, Greater Hippias, Phaedrus, the Symposium, Phaedo, the Republic, Parmenides, the Sophist, the Statesman, Philebus, Timaeus, Laws. Theory of Knowledge Plato seeks to know knowledge in all its phases -- physical, mental, moral -- which must come from a complete understanding of the nature of the world. For Plato, the degrees of knowledge are four:
The three inferior degrees of knowledge tend to the knowledge of Ideas, which is the most perfect knowledge. Plato argued that if knowledge is derived from sense-perception then the Sophists are right that there can be no genuine knowledge. He contended that sense-perception does not reveal the true reality of things. Genuine knowledge is knowledge based on Reason, not sense-perceptions or opinion. He condemns the Sophists for confusing appearance and reality. True knowledge comes from contemplation of the truth which, in turn, impels dialectics. The dialectical method consists of comprehension of scattered particulars in one ideas, and in the division of the idea into the processes of generalization and classification. The dialectical method produces consistent thinking by generalizing and particularizing. Concepts are needed for judgment, and concepts do not have their source in sense, but in ideals and standards of the true, the beautiful, and the Good. Conceptual knowledge is the only genuine knowledge. If the idea or concept is to have any value as knowledge, something real must correspond to it. If the objects of our ideas were not real, our knowledge would not be knowledge. The world perceived by our senses is not the true world, it is flux, appearance, illusion. The true world is changeless and eternal, as Parmenides taught. Thoughts alone can grasp eternal and changeless Being; that which persists and defies change is the essential form (conceptual thought). Metaphysics The World of Ideas: There are two ways to knowledge: the senses and the intellect. The two kinds of knowledge which result differ essentially: sensitive cognition is particular and contingent, whereas intellective cognition is universal and necessary. Since the perfect cannot derive from the imperfect, intellective knowledge cannot derive from that which is sensitive. Intellective knowledge comes from an intelligible world, where Ideas are subsistent realities. This is the divine world of Plato; in it there are many subsistent Ideas, which find their unity in a supreme Idea of Good. Having established the existence of the world of Ideas, Plato undertakes the task of determining the relations it has with the sensible world and with our souls. More about Plato's World of Ideas. The Visible World: Beside the World of Ideas and opposed to it, there is Chaos (the space filled with matter devoid of any form). Between the World of Ideas and the Chaos, there is Demiurge, which infuses the souls in matter and constructs the heavens and the earth, taking the Ideas as a model. All the determinations which are in the material world (forms, qualities and numbers) are likenesses of the Ideas. Thus the visible world is the result of two elements: determinations (the rational element which descends from the World of Ideas through the cooperation of Demiurge), and matter (the irrational element and root of evil). Like Demiurge, and in dependence on Demiurge, souls are intermediary between the World of Ideas and the world of Chaos. Demiurge infused souls into all matter, so that for Plato the universe is animated: there is a soul in the stars and in the earth, and they are the principle of order and life. Plato distinguishes two souls: the rational (intellective) and the irrational, subdivided into the concupiscible (vegetative) and the irascible (sensitive). Theory of Man: All three souls are in man. But the rational soul, which exists from eternity together with the Ideas, is in the body as in a tomb. It must regulate the impulses of the irascible soul and repress the desires of the concupiscible soul if it wishes to live according to its nature. The fundamental grades of cognition in the human soul are two: sensitive and intellective. Sensitive knowledge, bearing within itself the memory of the divine world, offers to the rational soul the occasion of awakening again in itself knowledge which it already had, together with the Ideas, and had forgotten in its union with the body. Thus intellective knowledge is nothing other than reminiscence. Plato combines and transforms the teachings of his philosophic predecessors. He agrees
Ethics The ethics of Plato is a practical application of what he had established in metaphysics. If the human soul belongs to the World of Ideas, reason demands that it overcome all obstacles so as to be worthy of returning to that world. The means to overcome the impulses of both the concupiscible and irascible souls are the following virtues: fortitude, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Regarding the destiny of the soul after death, Plato distinguishes four cases:
The souls in the second and third groups will be reincarnated according to their punishment or reward. The souls of the fourth group are free from temporal life forever. The ideal is a well-ordered soul in which the higher functions rule the lower. Reason and truth endure. Matter is imperfection. The soul must free itself from this dead weight and contemplate the beautiful. This doctrine -- contempus mundi -- was favorable to the ascetic ideals of early Christianity. It culminates in mysticism for Plato, and later for Christianity. Politics Plato finds a necessity for society in the fact that every man needs the aid of others. Since the needs of society are many, the members of society must be organized into different classes. These classes are three:
Plato denied family and private property to philosophers and warriors, because they must not be distracted in fulfilling their duties. Plato's state is an ethico-religious organism in which, under the direction of the philosophers, everyone must attain virtue. The ideal State is a complete unity. It is the instrument of civilization, founded on the highest knowledge obtainable. It must undertake the education of children, control marriage, property, prepare its best fitted citizens for government and political power. Art and Religion Art for Plato is imitation, and as such it is a cause of corruption and must be banished from the perfect state. Plato speaks also of art as a divine mania. In religion, the divine is constituted by the Ideas centering in the supreme Idea of the Good (God). Besides, there is divinity in the world, the souls centering in Demiurge. The Academies The School of Plato was called the Academy. Following upon his School, three Academies may be distinguished: (1) the Ancient Academy, represented by Speusippus and Arcesilaus; (2) the Middle Academy, represented by Carneades; (3) the New Academy, with its particular tendency to Eclecticism and Pythagoreanism, whose last manifestation is the Neo-Platonism of Plotinus. In The Radical Academy
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Philosophy is conceived of in its practical order. Man must seek the truth; and once the truth is discovered in the purely speculative field, it must serve to find the solution of practical problems: Philosophy must render man morally better. Plato distinguishes four degrees of knowledge: (a) apprehension of pure sense images, such as dreams and imaginations; (b) perceptive knowledge of sensible objects, the purpose of which is to form a particular judgment; (c) mathematical knowledge -- for instance, the apprehension of the particular shape of the perceived object; (d) philosophical knowledge, which consists in the apprehension of the Ideas. The sensible world is presented to us under a twofold aspect, the first rational, the second irrational, corresponding respectively to form (essence) and matter. The soul must be by nature similar to Ideas, simple and not subject to changes (Phaedo). The wisdom which is found sleeping in the soul must be aroused through the images of it which are found in sensible things, and from sensible things it must arise to the invisible and supreme beauty, which is neither born nor dies. (Symposium). In so far as we draw near to the contemplation of this supreme beauty, by so much are we separated from the illusory life. Hence Plato calls philosophy "the contemplation of death." The necessity for society and the state resides in human nature itself. No one is sufficient in himself; everyone needs the aid of others in order to live a life worthy of man. Hence man must live with others in society in order to make use of them both materially and morally. The great personage is not the one who does great things, but the one who knows how to live wisely. In the Symposium, Plato affirms that art is a mania, a divine madness which places the artist above the common run of man. In the Platonic system the Idea of the Good is the supreme reality on which all other ideas and all ethical, logical and aesthetic values of the sensible world depend. The Idea of the Good is the reality through which the world of becoming is made possible and rational. Aristotle (picture) does not accept Plato's doctrine because the world of separate Ideas does not explain the reality of this visible world, which is in continuous movement. Since Ideas are themselves immutable and unchangeable, they cannot be the cause of motion and change in sensible things. The cause of motion and change must be sought in the thing itself as an immanent element of the reality. Only when an understanding of the factors of motion is had can we have a true knowledge of things, for these factors of motion are the key to understanding the real meaning of the concept of Socrates. Hence every investigation must start from the reality which we actually have to face. Aristotle was born at Stagira, Thrace, in 384 B.C., fourteen years after the death of Socrates, and died in 322 B.C. His father was court physician to the King of Macedon. At the age of eighteen, he entered Plato's Academy at Athens (Plato was then 60 years old) and remained in the Academy until Plato's death. Aristotle became tutor to the son of the King of Macedon, a boy of 13 who became Alexander the Great. About 335 B.C., Aristotle returned to Athens and founded his Lyceum (the Peripatetic School). Twelve years later, being threatened with persecution, Aristotle went into exile and died shortly thereafter. Aristotle's works include The Organon (The Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, Sophistic Refutations); Physics (Concerning the Heavens, Concerning Birth and Corruption, Meteorology, On the Soul); Metaphysics; Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, Great Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics. Logic Logic essays to state the relationship existing between one concept and another with the purpose of giving the intellect the reason for passing from one truth to another. In order to do this, logic analyzes each concept. This analysis makes it possible for us to know the extension and comprehension of each concept, and hence to classify them in categories. The categories show the genus and difference of each term, and made possible the definition. The intellect expresses the definition through a judgment; this is the intellect's second operation. Characteristic of a judgment is its truth or falsity. The possibility of falsity forces the mind to demonstrate that the given judgment is true. The demonstration or argumentation is the third operation of the intellect. The best method of demonstrating the truth of a judgment is the syllogism. The syllogism is an argumentation formed by three propositions so connected that from the truth of the first two (premises) the mind draws out the third (conclusion). The foundation of all reasoning is the principle of contradiction. Induction, for Aristotle, is the way through which the mind reaches universal concepts. Metaphysics Matter and Form, Potency and Act: Aristotle starts from the solid ground of experience. Experience shows us that individuals are not produced by some idea or model, but that man generates man. Every seed or germ possesses a potency for reproducing an individual specifically identical to that by which the seed was produced. Moreover, the seed is actually seed, but at the same time it will be matter in regard to the successive forms of development. Hence we have the following concepts:
In short, every reality is a compound of matter and form, or -- what is the same thing -- of potency and act. The Four Causes: The process of generation (and the same can be said of the process of an artificial production) shows the presence of four causes:
Efficient cause, formal cause and final cause are reducible logically to the concept of form. Hence the fundamental principles or causes of reality are matter (or potency) and form (or act). Priority of Act: The process of becoming shows also that every movement or change is conditioned on the existence of a being, which by its impulse is the initial cause of the movement. Hence the principle may be stated: Every movement (the passage from from potency to act) is conditioned on a mover. The Limits of Becoming: The process of becoming presupposes a lowest point (Prime Matter) and a highest point (the immovable Mover, God).
The proof of the existence of God is that every process of movement appeals to a mover. This appeal cannot go on ad infinitum. Thus it is necessary to stop at a prime Mover, which must not be in the series of movement, but must be absolutely immovable; this is God. Aristotle conceives of God as Pure Act, pure form, thinking substance, thought of thought. God is transcendent and is the cause of the movement as final cause. But He is not the creator of the universe and does not govern it. Cosmology Aristotelian cosmology (physics) as a science of nature has been surpassed by the progress of the modern sciences. Aristotle conceived of the universe as a complex of spheres which rotate around the earth. Each sphere is composed of incorruptible matter and an intelligence. The earth is composed of the four elements of Empedocles. The movement of these elements is caused by the heavenly spheres, which, in turn, are moved by the immovable Mover. The metaphysical principles of Aristotle's physics still retain their value, however. These are the principles of mover and moved, change, the definition of motion and of time. Psychology Life (or the soul) is the principle of immanent action. There are three kinds of souls: vegetative, sensitive, and intellective. The human soul is one and is the substantial form of the body. It performs organic (vegetative and sensitive) and inorganic operations (through the understanding and will). Ideas are not innate, but are abstracted by the "agent intellect" and received by the passive intellect. The two types of knowledge give origin to two types of operations, sensitive appetite and will. Aristotle's doctrine about the immortality of individual souls is obscure. Ethics Happiness for man consists in attaining the perfection due to his nature. In regard to this, Aristotle teaches that two kinds of virtues are necessary: (1) dianoetical virtues, which concern the perfection of mind; and (2) ethical virtues, which concern sensitive tendencies. These tend to extremes (vices), but virtue consists in finding a just mean between the two extremes. The habit of virtue is acquired by constancy in performing the same virtuous acts. Politics Man is by nature a political animal. The first step to society is the family, which has four elements: children, wife, goods and slaves. Aristotle does not surpass the Grecian prejudice about slavery. The state for Aristotle is an ethico-spiritual institution; it has not only negative duties (the defense of the citizens) but also positive duties (the education of the members of society). Aristotle distinguishes three forms of government, each of which can degenerate into tyranny. Religion and Art Aristotle presents us with the religious cult of Pure Act and astral intelligences. Pure Act (God) is not a creator, ignores terrestrial becoming, and hence can only be the object of a rational cult. The astral intelligences would give birth to a physical religion. Mythical polytheism is not justified metaphysically, but is admitted as a means of educating the people. Aristotle states that art is an imitation not of the contingent element of nature, as Plato believed, but of the intelligible element (idea). Aristotelian metaphysics did not have development of significance after the death of Aristotle. The Peripatetics can be considered as commentators on his works. We note Alexander of Aphrodisias (second century A.D.), who interpreted the doctrine of the Stagirite in a naturalistic manner by denying the immortality of the soul and the finality of the world. The greatest development of Aristotelianism was to take place in Christian thought. In The Radical Academy
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The positive contributions of Aristotle to the Perennial Philosophy The cause of motion and change, according to Aristotle, must be sought in the thing itself as an immanent element of the reality. Only when an understanding of the factor or factors of motion is had can we have a true knowledge of things; for these factors of motion are the key to understanding the concept of Socrates. Thus any investigation must start from things which begin to be, develop, and then pass away. Although sensible reality is in continuous "becoming," the "factors" of this becoming are unchangeable, immutable. Only when the causes of motion are grasped as intrinsic factors of motion itself will we have a true understanding of reality, i.e., knowledge by causes. In other words, the intelligibility of sensible things must be sought in the things themselves, and not in a separate world of Ideas, as Plato believed. For Aristotle's epistemological and metaphysical contributions to the Perennial Philosophy, see the following sections in The Philosophy of Aristotle:
Ethics has the purpose of establishing what is the end that man, according to his nature, must attain, and also from what source his happiness comes. The end of man, as for every being, according to the doctrine established in metaphysics, is the realization of the form, the attainment of the perfection due to his nature. Now man is a rational animal, and hence his end will be the attainment of wisdom. Aristotle recognizes the fact that man is not pure reason, that he also has passions; that he is a rational "animal." In this, Aristotle goes far beyond the simple Greek intellectualism of other philosophers. The ethical virtues, according to Aristotle, consist in a just mean between two extremes. The ethical virtues include the element of constancy. Constancy induces what Aristotle call habit, a constant right moral disposition. The family is natural to man and private property is necessary for the family. The duty of the state is to provide citizens with such material goods as the individual and collective defense and security, the possibility of self-determination, which would not be otherwise available. But above all it is to direct men to the attainment of happiness through virtue. Education is the harmonious development of all the activities of man -- first, his spiritual activities, and subordinately to them, the material and physical ones; first, knowledge, in which virtue consists, and then gymnastic exercises. Art does not tend to imitate the contingent element of nature, but the intelligible, that which in nature is rational and universal.
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